Erik Spoelstra paused for a second, took in the question, and realized that all of sport is now on trial.

In a very personal way. In every locker room. And every team. In every sport.

“I’ll tell you this, it’s something we have to be aware of now,” said the coach of the most successful franchise in professional sport, the back-to-back champion Miami Heat.

Just a highway away from where the Heat practice, the Miami Dolphins are under the spotlight for the garish, crude, mean and very personal exchanges between Richie Incognito and Jonathan Martin, the offensive lineman who were supposed to be teammates and friends.

They were supposed to be comrades, buddies on the offensive line, and the language that was going around was the kind you might hear in any locker room in professional sport — only this was worse.

It was threatening. It was cruel. It was mean-spirited. And Martin didn’t take any of it lightly. It was bullying — by text, by telephone message, bullying both cyber and otherwise and now the Dolphins are left to search for answers and explanations.

How did this happen? How could it happen? And now, just about every coach and every management team in pro sport is looking around and wondering to themselves: What about my team?

Is there anything I need to worry about?

Not every player fits in on every team. Ask Ken Dryden how he felt the part of outsider on the great Montreal Canadiens teams. Not everybody is friends. Not everybody can exchange one-liners and deal with the locker room profanities. What is sense of humour in one locker room is disturbing in another. What is rookie initiation on one team is hurtful in another.

“You don’t want to take it for granted,” said Spoelstra. “We have a very close knit group with a lot of different personalities in this locker room. At times it can be very lighthearted. You have to have thick skin to be in our locker room. You have to have a little bit of a different personality. You also have to have confidence.

“Our guys have a sense of when not to take it over the line but there’s not a handbook on this. And the more awareness that we’re all forced to take on this issue is better.”

There is no handbook on this, even though the NFL is certain to come up with some kind of measure before next season. Not that many years ago, when there was at least one ugly hazing scandal in Canadian university football, which included the great educational institution of McGill shutting down its team, and what would be considered hazing was supposed to stop in Canada.

But the communications with Martin were racist and threatening and placing a financial burden on players that was completely crossing any line.

Spoelstra may be cautious about his own team but superstar LeBron James is not.

“We’re okay here,” he said. “We’re a very, very close group. Obviously, we laugh, we joke, we get on each other. But we never cross that line, man.

“What’s going on with the Dolphins is a very sensitive subject. I don’t want to harp on what’s going on because I don’t have all the information. We don’t have to take a step back (and look at our team). We know what we’re about.”

The Dolphins may have said the same thing if asked a month or three ago. A joke to one player may not be a joke to another. The world has gotten more complicated, the same with team dynamics. This is a different athlete, more thoughtful, maybe more emotional, than ever before.

For his part, Amir Johnson, the all-purpose Raptor, detests bullying of any kind. It is clear, speaking to him, that he has seen it up close, mostly in high school. And even now, he hears too much about it.

“A locker room is supposed to be a team atmosphere,” he said. “When we bully, if we bully at all, we’re pretty much messing around. That’s all it is.

“To be honest, I’ve never had that on any team I’ve been on. But I know it happens a lot in school. As a teammate, we try to encourage each other, instead of picking on each other. In sports, we see each other more than we see our families. We have family atmosphere. We’re not picking on anybody. We’re supposed to stick together.”

Players on the Miami Dolphins may have given similar answers months ago. Just not anymore, while all of sport takes stock, trying to make certain that all is well.

LEBRON'S FAVOURITE ATHLETE?

LeBron James has just one hero in professional sport and it happens to be a good friend of his.

“One person I admire is Floyd Mayweather,” King James answered. “The guy is undefeated and if you don’t lose to anybody. That’s a pretty good feat.

“He’s a close friend of mine. I think it’s pretty cool what he’s done with his career. I think that’s great. He’s the one who sticks out in my mind.”

James did say he would one day like to train with Mayweather, but hasn’t found the time to do so. “I’m kinda busy,” he said.

Would he fight Mayweather, whom he outweights by more than 100 lbs? “Absolutely not,” he said. “I’m not stupid.”

Teams are on trial because of Dolphins fiasco

Erik Spoelstra paused for a second, took in the question, and realized that all of sport is now on trial.

In a very personal way. In every locker room. And every team. In every sport.

“I’ll tell you this, it’s something we have to be aware of now,” said the coach of the most successful franchise in professional sport, the back-to-back champion Miami Heat.

Just a highway away from where the Heat practice, the Miami Dolphins are under the spotlight for the garish, crude, mean and very personal exchanges between Richie Incognito and Jonathan Martin, the offensive lineman who were supposed to be teammates and friends.

They were supposed to be comrades, buddies on the offensive line, and the language that was going around was the kind you might hear in any locker room in professional sport — only this was worse.